Buffalo Trace Just Unveiled What May Be Its Most Important New Bourbon in Decades

Pappy may be the MVP of Buffalo Trace, but the bottles that make up the distillery’s annual Antique Collection (BTAC) constitute something of a “dream team,” as Gear Patrol cofounder Ben Bowers wrote earlier this year.

And now, that team is growing with the first new addition in literal decades.

Buffalo Trace Distillery

Buffalo Trace’s greatest hits

Since 2000, the BTAC has represented the crème de la crème of American whiskey across a range of styles, with countless awards fueling both acclaim and demand for the various expression.

(While the bottles carry a suggested retail price of $150, according to the distillery, they can go for thousands due to rarity and hype.)

Buffalo Trace Distillery

Buffalo Trace initially launched the BTAC with only three bottles — Sazerac Rye 18 Year-Old, Eagle Rare 17-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon and William Larue Weller Kentucky Straight Bourbon. Soon thereafter came George T. Stagg Kentucky Straight Bourbon and Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey.

Finally, for the first time since 2006, the lauded whiskey lineup will get its first new bottle in the form of E.H. Taylor Bottled-In-Bond Bourbon.

Buffalo Trace Distillery

Bond, Bottled-in-Bond

According to Buffalo Trace, the liquid inside the clear bottle was made using its low-rye Mash Bill No. 1, then aged 15 years and fourth months before being bottled at 100 proof.

That makes it both significantly older than your standard E.H. Taylor Small Batch bourbon, which doesn’t carry an age statement but is typically between four and ten years old.

Buffalo Trace Distillery

It also means the whiskey meets the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, which its namesake, Colonel E.H. Taylor, helped push through more than a century ago.

“Created in his honor, every sip of E.H. Taylor Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon offers more than exceptional flavor,” says Andrew Duncan, Global Brand Director, Buffalo Trace Distillery, “it’s a taste of history and reminder of his strict tenets that have safeguarded America’s world-leading whiskey quality standards for nearly one hundred and fifty years.”

Buffalo Trace Distillery

Availability and pricing

Like the five bottles it joins in the BTAC, Colonel E.H. Taylor Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon is extremely limited, with prices expected to far surpass its suggested retail price of $150.

According to Buffalo Trace, full sets of the collection are available for purchase via auction at Legacy de Forge, with bidding already north of $1,300 at the time of writing.

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